


One Good Deed Deserves Another

by Higgles123



Category: Peaky Blinders (TV)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-14
Updated: 2020-08-14
Packaged: 2021-03-05 22:27:59
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,295
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25902820
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Higgles123/pseuds/Higgles123
Summary: Alfie finds himself in trouble during a meeting with Sabini, and receives help from an unlikely source
Relationships: Alfie Solomons/Original Female Character(s)
Kudos: 26





	One Good Deed Deserves Another

The car came to a stop and Alfie found himself immediately on edge as he eyed the restaurant before him. He never liked being in Sabini’s territory at the best of times and let alone when he had promised to come unarmed for a parley. Of course the lads who had travelled with him in three other cars had made sure their vehicles were loaded with weapons, but they were no good to anyone in the car if Sabini went back on his promise to keep this meeting a friendly one. Unfortunately, Alfie had no choice but to trust Sabini out of respect for the fact that the wop had done the same when he turned up unarmed at the bakery for their last parley. It was a funny thing really because they had spent years doing this; parleys, fighting over one street or another, trying to do each other over on business deals, not to mention a whole host of other things. Stepping out of the car, cane in hand, Alfie stood up straight and sniffed.

“Ishmael, me and you’ll go announce ourselves and then when Sabini’s ready, I’ll give the order for the rest of them to come in.”

The restaurant stunk of Italians. Not that Italians had a specific stench per se, and if he was being honest, he most probably would have enjoyed the strong smell of garlic and lemons if he were anywhere else. But the truth of the matter was that he hated Sabini with an unadulterated passion and therefore he tarred all Italians with the same brush. Walking up to the bar, he nodded briefly to one of the barmen, controlling the urge to scoff at the bloke’s slicked back hair and pencil moustache. He swore some men these days thought they were out of a Charlie Chaplin or something. They looked like wet lettuces in his opinion, but for some unknown reason it did send the women all aflutter. Good job the only women Alfie ever went with were the kind he paid afterwards so they didn’t get a toss about how he looked.

“I’ll go and let Mr Sabini know you’re here,” the man stammered nervously, an ironically stark contrast to the masculine facade he portrayed. “Alessia will make you a drink.”

Alfie’s attention turned swiftly to the girl in his periphery, and for a moment he was taken aback. She was pretty but not in the typical sense. Her features weren’t symmetrical; her huge dark eyes were slightly off centre and her nose was the tiniest bit crooked, but there was something magnetising about her imperfections. She smiled, a genuine toothy smile and Alfie decided she was truly exquisite. Shame she worked for Sabini because he wouldn’t have minded a quick fuck with her if he was being honest.

“What can I get you, SIr?” she asked in a voice that was like caramel and made Alfie’s balls tingle unexpectedly.

“Whiskey,” he answered, even though he had no intention of drinking it.

“And you, Sir?” she smiled expectantly at Ishmael, which for some reason really irked Alfie.

“He’ll have a lemonade,” Alfie answered for him. “Only men can handle their whiskey, aint that right, Ishmael?”

Ishmael nodded and Alfie couldn’t help but feel a twang of guilt at purposefully trying to make the young man look bad. Fuckin’ women; didn’t matter who they were or where they came from, a pretty bit of skirt could send even the maturest of men a little bit cuckoo. Glancing around, the girl quickly checked nobody was watching before sliding a beer mat across the bar towards Alfie.

“You might want this before I get your drink,” she said with a look on her face that Alfie couldn’t quite comprehend.

He frowned momentarily as he looked down at the beer mat and realised there was something written on it. He looked at the girl questioningly and her brown eyes flickered around the room nervously before settling back on Alfie with a pleading look.

“Ishmael, we forgot Sabini’s gift,” Alfie announced suddenly. “You know the one we brought as a gesture of peace between our two peoples.”

Ishmael immediately understood that they were possibly going to be facing some sort of threat and needed to be armed, because this was one of Alfie’s various methods of making his men aware without saying so out loud. He had no idea how Alfie knew but he suspected it was something to do with whatever the barmaid had given him.

“Want me to go back to the car and retrieve it, Sir?”

“Yeah go on,” Alfie nodded. “You might wanna check the other lads cars cos I can’t remember which one of them I asked to take it.”

“I’ll be right back then.”

Alfie slid the beer mat into his pocket inconspicuously just as he heard Sabini’s booming voice burst through the door.

“Alfie!” Sabini’s smile was as fake as always. “So good to see you, friend!”

“Yeah, you too,” Alfie nodded gruffly as Sabini greeted him with a kiss on each cheek. “Lovely place this, aint it?”

“I’m glad you think so,” Sabini preened proudly. “I take it the lovely Alessia has gotten you a drink?”

“Oh yeah,” Alfie nodded, barely casting the girl a glance. “You know me though; aint really one for drinkin’, but I appreciate your hospitality of course. Anyway, shall we get on with this then cos we’re both busy people, aren’t we?”

“What’s the rush Alfie?” Sabini frowned, watching as Alfie’s men began to pile in the restaurant.

“No rush mate,” Alfie sniffed. “Just not used to all this nicey nicey stuff between us. Almost unnervin’ aint it?”

“Hmm,” Sabini nodded as they all began to take their seats. “But of course it’s always much nicer when we get along, isn’t it?”

“Most definitely,” Alfie muttered, watching out of the corner of his eye as one of Sabini’s men locked the door with both the key and the deadbolt.

“Nothing to worry about,” Sabini assured Alfie, noticing the look of suspicion in his eyes. “Just a precaution to make sure we don’t get any unwanted visitors.”

“Yeah,” Alfie narrowed his eyes. “Wouldn’t want that, would we?”

……… ……… ……… ……… ……… ……… ……… ……… ……… ……… ……… ……… ………

“Did you see the look on that fucker’s face when he realised we were all armed?”

“Were almost as good as the look on the face of the bloke whose kneecap I shot.”

Alfie listened to his men, coming down from the usual adrenaline high that a fight gave them all. Sabini had bided his time for almost an hour until Alfie had begun to wonder if the girl behind the bar had been having him on, but then just when they least suspected it Sabini’s men went in for the kill. It had been a relatively easy fight because Sabini’s men hadn’t been prepared to meet much resistance from Alfie and his lot.

“This was supposed to be a parley and you come in here with weapons, you fucking animals!” Sabini had screamed in temper once Alfie’s men had knocked ten bells out of the Italians and were now retreating back to their cars.

“And it’s a good fuckin’ job we knew you dirty wops couldn’t be trusted,” Alfie had shouted back. “You gonna fight, Sabini, at least have the guts to make it a fair one. My mother’s got bigger balls than you.”

Alfie smirked to himself thinking about it, but truthfully the knowledge that the situation could have been a lot worse wasn’t far from the forefront of his mind. Reaching into his coat pocket, he pulled out the beer mat and stared at the small neat letters written there.

_It’s a trap. Sabini is planning to kill you._

He frowned to himself and decided there and then to find out everything he could about the mysterious girl who had for some reason saved his life.

……… ……… ……… ……… ……… ……… ……… ……… ……… ……… ……… ……… ………

_One week later_

Alessia pulled her coat tighter around herself, not because she was cold but because in a strange sort of way it made her feel safer walking home alone in the early hours of the morning. Sabini was still in a foul mood because of what had transpired with the Jews, and Alessia shuddered at the thought of him ever finding out she had something to do with it. Almost a week had passed though and she knew the man was too impatient to bide his time if he suspected her involvement. 

  
Up ahead she saw a group of imbibed men arguing amongst themselves and for some reason she didn’t particularly fancy walking past them. Working in a bar, she knew all too well how drunken men could get. Her only other option was to take a short cut through the alleyway just a little bit up on the left. She sighed; it most definitely was the quicker option and would cut her journey home in half, but also the fact remained that it was a deserted alleyway and she had no idea who might be lurking down there. One of the men ahead decided to punch his friend in the face and the whole group descended into a mass brawl, leaving Alessia with no other choice. 

She put her head down and walked as quickly as she could, fingering the rosary beads in her pocket in the hopes that they would perhaps keep her safe. But seemed that this time the Divine had other ideas because without hearing anyone creep up on her, a hand clapped across her mouth and she was pulled against a hard chest. She kicked and flailed but the assailant easily kept tight hold of her and from the shadows she heard a rhythmic _clunk clunk clunk._ Her eyes widened when Alfie Solomons appeared before her, his eyes peering out from beneath his wide brimmed hat. He came to a stop in front of her and she waited with bated breath for whatever it was he was about to do.

“My friend here is gonna take his hand off your mouth now,” Alfie murmured quietly. “But if you try and call for help or make any noise, you’ll leave me no choice but to have him quieten you, yeah?”

Alessia nodded, tears of fear welling up in her eyes. The hand moved away hesitantly and she licked at her lips, grimacing at the sweaty taste there. It took everything in her not to scream for someone to help, knowing that there was a chance the drunken men might hear, but what she didn’t know was that those men had been planted there by Alfie for the sole purpose of goading her into the alleyway without raising any suspicion.

Alfie shuffled closer towards Alessia who watched him with trepidation. Her eyes twinkled under the waxing moon and her beauty was even more than he remembered. This slip of a girl, this _Italian_ , had been plaguing his thoughts for the past seven days until he had all but driven himself mad with questions he couldn’t answer. But she could. He reached out a hand towards her and she flinched, blinking wildly as he did nothing more than brush a lock of her hair behind her ear. He didn’t know why he did it, but her hair was as soft as he imagined it would and he wished to reach out and run his fingers through it properly.

“I won’t hurt you,” he promised. “But I do have a few questions for you.”

“Listen, if you’ve come to ask me about Sabini then I won’t be able to tell you anything,” Alessia stammered nervously. “I just work behind the bar and sometimes serve food when they’re short on waiters.”

_“_ I don’t wanna known nothin’ about Sabini,” Alfie frowned. “No, what I wanna know is why you did what you did the other day? If it weren’t for you, me and my men would be probably be dead. Why did you do it?”

“Why do you care?” she asked.

“I’m a curious man, Alessia Maria Anastasi,” Alfie answered, noting the way her pupils dilated slightly when she realised he knew her full name. “I’ve found out an awful lot about you this week. Nineteen years old, not married, oldest of two siblings. Although since your brother died last November, you are now the only child of Giancomo and Roberta Anastasi. Giancomo, your father, managed to get on the wrong side of the lovely Darby Sabini and as such owed him a large sum of money that he couldn’t pay. So instead of putting your father in an early grave, Sabini generously agreed to take your then fourteen year old brother under his wing and have him do whatever was asked of him. Yeah, see it’s easy to find out things when you know the right people and you can pay the right price, but not even all the tea in China could tell me why you helped me that night.”

Alessia chewed her lip as she tried to figure out what to say. Alfie could see the cogs in her mind whirring about like them little horses on a seaside a carousel.

“Now although your brother’s death certificate says he died of natural causes, there aint nothin’ natural about a bullet to the back of the head is there?” Alfie continued. “And your lack of reaction tells me that you already knew how your brother really died.”

“What do you want from me, Mr Solomons?” Alessia swallowed down the lump that appeared suddenly in her throat.

“The truth,” he said simply.

“Alright,” she sighed. “I’ll tell you, but can you have this oaf let go of me please?”

Alfie nodded to the man who had hold of her and she almost sunk to the ground with relief when he let go. She folded her arms across her chest and glanced around to see at least four or five other men in various positions in the alleyway. Even if she was stupid enough to try getting away she knew she wouldn’t get very far.

“Do you promise that I can go if I tell you?” she asked.

“I swear it,” Alfie agreed.

“You’re right about my brother,” she began, the slight tremble in her voice telling Alfie that it was still a difficult thing for her to talk about. “He was killed… by Sabini. I don’t know exactly what happened but all I do know is that my brother got on his bad side and that was that. My parents were told not to ask questions unless they wished to lose their only other child, so they didn’t.”

“And now you work for Sabini?”

“My Dad still owes him,” Alessia shrugged. “I’ll work for him until the debt is paid off.”

_And put up with his wandering hands and his leering looks._

_“_ So you helped me out of spite to Sabini? Is that it?”

“No,” she shook her head. “Despite everything he’s done to our family, I was brought up better than to behave like that. The reason I helped you was because… I owed you.”

“Owed me how?” Alfie frowned. “I hadn’t even met you before.”

“No, you hadn’t,” she agreed. “But you met my brother once. Held a gun to his head not long after he first started out with Sabini. You let him go. You could have killed him but you didn’t, and that’s why I owed you.”

“Your brother must have been mistaken,” Alfie scoffed. He would never have any of those bastards go, especially not when he had them within point blank range. “Either that or I didn’t know he was with Sabini.”

“You did,” Alessia was adamant. “He didn’t tell me the details, only that they had been at your bakery and you caught him in the cellar. He said you held the gun up to his head and were about to shoot him, but then you dragged him into the light so you could get a look at his face before you killed him and you stopped. You told him to go home and remember the day he was shown mercy because if you saw him again, it wouldn’t be repeated.”

Alfie blinked as a memory came back to him; one he’d thought about for a long time after it happened, but then it had been forgotten just like the rest. He remembered that night. He remember yanking what he had thought to be a grown man out from the shadows only to see the face of a boy who didn’t even look old enough to have started shaving yet. His eyes were wide with fear and his Adam’s apple had bobbed up and down anxiously. Something inside of Alfie just couldn’t do it; couldn’t pull the trigger and end the life of a child. Even if he worked for Sabini, he was just a kid at the end of the day and Alfie himself knew all too well what he had been like growing up. So Alfie had continued to point the gun at the young lad while he told him exactly what Alessia had said.

“He was just a kid,” Alfie murmured, feeling almost embarrassed by his act of compassion. “I aint about killin’ kids.”

“Shame Darby Sabini doesn’t feel the same way,” Alessia said sadly. “My brother was three weeks off his sixteenth birthday when he died. Don’t think he’d ever even had a girlfriend before; certainly never heard him talk about one. There were lots of things he didn’t get to do and never will, but thanks to you we at least got more time with him than we would have if you hadn’t have been merciful that night.”

Alfie didn’t know what to say. He was good with words as a rule, but not the sentimental sort and most certainly not in front of his men. For some reason though, he found himself feeling sorry for the young girl and wanted to do something to help; even though he knew it wouldn’t ease the pain of losing her brother.

“I’ve got a proposition for you, Miss Anastasi; one that could benefit your family financially,” he said. “You help me out like you did the other day and I’ll pay you generously for it as well as ensure that you and your family are protected should the need arise.”

“That _is_ a very generous offer, Mr Solomons,” Alessia answered. “But without wanting to seem rude or to offend you, it’s not one that I’m interested in.”

“You aint interested in gettin’ revenge on the bloke what killed your brother?”

“No,” Alessia said without hesitation. “Revenge won’t bring my brother back and it won’t make my heart hurt any less. All it will do is feed the hate that I try with immense difficulty every day to keep at bay. I helped you the other day because like I already told you, I owed it to you, but now that debt is repaid and I don’t wish to have any other part in all of this. I’m glad you didn’t die and I certainly don’t wish you any harm for the future, Mr Solomons, but I hope you understand my reasons for saying no.”

Surprisingly he did, and as much as Alfie wanted to be annoyed he just couldn’t. In fact, he found himself respecting her for the decision and for the dignity that she carried herself with. Which was precisely why less than two minutes later, Alessia Anastasi was making her way back home to her family.

And as for Alfie. He kept that little beer mat for the rest of his days as a reminder that sometimes doing good things doesn’t make you weak. Sometimes a person’s good deeds will be rewarded in the way they least expect. 


End file.
